Minuartia patula
Minuartia uniflora
Pitcher's stitchwort
one-flower stitchwort
filiform.
filiform.
erect to ascending, green, 5–30 cm, glabrous or sometimes stipitate-glandular distally or throughout, internodes of all stems 1–7 times as long as leaves; wintering stems absent.
erect to ascending, green, 7–20 cm, glabrous, internodes of stems 1–7 times as long as leaves.
overlapping proximally, connate proximally, with loose, scarious to herbaceous sheath 0.1–0.5 mm;
blade straight to variously curved, green, flat, prominently 1-veined abaxially, linear, 2–20 × 0.5–1.5(–1.8) mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, herbaceous, smooth, apex green or purple, blunt to acute, flat, ± shiny, glabrous to stipitate-glandular;
axillary leaves absent.
not overlapping, connate proximally, with tight, herbaceous or scarious sheath 0.1–0.3 mm;
blade straight to outwardly curved, widely spreading, green, flat, 1-veined abaxially, especially proximal, narrowly lanceolate to oblong, commonly linear, 2–20 × 0.3–1.5 mm, flexuous, margins not thickened, scarious, smooth, apex green to purple, rounded to acute, dull, glabrous;
axillary leaves poorly developed.
5–30-flowered, open cymes;
bracts subulate to ovate, herbaceous.
7–25+-flowered, open cymes;
bracts subulate to ovate, herbaceous, margins scarious.
0.3–3 cm, stipitate-glandular.
0.5–5 cm, glabrous.
hypanthium shallowly disc-shaped;
sepals prominently (3- or) 5-veined, narrowly to broadly lanceolate (herbaceous portion narrowly to broadly lanceolate), 4–5.5 mm, not enlarging in fruit, apex green or purple, narrowly acute to acuminate, not hooded, glabrous to sparsely stipitate-glandular;
petals obovate, 1.5–2.2(–3) times as long as sepals, apex rounded, broadly notched.
hypanthium disc-shaped;
sepals obscurely veined, ovate to elliptic or lanceolate (herbaceous portion elliptic to lanceolate), 2–3.5 mm, not enlarging in fruit, apex green, obtuse to rounded, not hooded, glabrous;
petals oblanceolate to spatulate, 1.5–2.5 times as long as sepals, apex rounded, entire to shallowly notched.
on stipe ca. 0.1 mm or shorter, narrowly ellipsoid, 3–4.2 mm, shorter than sepals.
on stipe shorter than 0.1 mm, pyramidal-ovoid, 3.5–4 mm, longer than sepals.
reddish brown to black, suborbiculate, radicle obscure, slightly compressed, 0.5–0.6 mm, tuberculate;
tubercles low, rounded.
yellowish brown, suborbiculate with radicle obscure, slightly compressed, 0.4–0.6 mm, tuberculate;
tubercles low, rounded.
= 14.
Minuartia patula
Minuartia uniflora
Minuartia patula and the related M. muscorum have received little attention in comparison to the granite-outcrop minuartias, the M. uniflora complex. J. A. Steyermark (1941) studied these taxa and described three forms, based chiefly on pubescence variation. Plants entirely glabrous [forma pitcheri (Nuttall) Steyermark] and those with sepals and pedicels somewhat stipitate-glandular (forma media Steyermark) were segregated from densely stipitate-glandular plants (forma patula). We do not feel that such variations deserve formal taxonomic recognition. Forma robusta, as defined by Steyermark, is here referred to M. muscorum.
Most specimens of Minuartia patula have prominently five-veined sepals (seen especially easily in the glabrous forms); occasional plants from Georgia, Kentucky, and Virginia have glabrous sepals with only three strong veins, resembling those of M. muscorum; in other features, including the seeds, they are clearly referable to M. patula. The status of the plants with three-veined sepals remains ambiguous; J. A. Steyermark (1941) included them in his forma media and B. Maguire (1951) included them (in our opinion incorrectly) in his var. robusta.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Minuartia alabamensis was originally described to accommodate much-reduced plants from Alabama (J. F. McCormick et al. 1971). Subsequent studies have shown them to be conspecific with M. uniflora (R. Wyatt 1984).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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